October 28, 1922: The Rose Bowl Stadium Opens

October 28, 1922: The Rose Bowl stadium opens in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. And the matchup for the opener couldn't have been better: A battle of unbeatens.

The University of California, from the system's main campus in Berkeley, outside San Francisco, was 4-0, and took on the 5-0 team from the University of Southern California, based in Los Angeles. A safety gave Cal a 2-0 lead at halftime, and the Golden Bears held on 2 goal-line stands, before adding a touchdown and a field goal to beat USC, 12-0.

On January 1, 1923, the Rose Bowl game, previously played at the 40,000-seat Tournament Park, was played there for the 1st time. This time, USC won, beating Penn State 14-3. The Rose Bowl has been played there annually since, except for 1942, when concerns over the bombing of Pearl Harbor led it to be moved to Durham, North Carolina, where host Duke lost to Oregon State; and 2021, when it was moved to Arlington, Texas due to COVID restrictions.

Originally a horseshoe, an expansion in 1928 made it the largest stadium in the country. Attendance peaked at 106,869, for the 1973 Rose Bowl, in which USC beat Ohio State 42-17. A renovation in 2013, with wider seats, dropped seating capacity to 92,542.

It was the home field for Caltech from 1923 to 1976, California State University at Los Angeles from 1957 to 1969, the North American Soccer League's the Los Angeles Wolves in 1968 and Los Angeles Aztecs in 1978 and '79, and MLS' Los Angeles Galaxy from 1996 to 2002. UCLA have played home games there sine 1982.

It has also hosted the 1983 Army-Navy Game (Navy won, 42-13), 8 games of the 1994 World Cup (including the U.S.' win over Colombia and loss to Romania, and Brazil's win over Italy in the Final), 4 games of the 1999 Women's World Cup (including the U.S.' win over China in the Final), cycling at the 1932 Olympics, and soccer at the 1984 Olympics.

And it has hosted 5 Super Bowls: XI, 1977, the Oakland Raiders beating the Minnesota Vikings 32-14; XIV, 1980, the Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Los Angeles Rams 31-19; XVII, 1983, the Washington Redskins beating the Miami Dolphins 27-17; XXI, 1987, the New York Giants beating the Denver Broncos 39-20; and XXVII, 1993, the Dallas Cowboys beating the Buffalo Bills 52-17.

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October 28, 1922 was a Saturday. There was another major college football milestone: For the 1st time, a football game is broadcast on live nationwide radio. The year before, the University of Chicago had become one of the first colleges to send its football team to play a team outside its home region, beating Princeton University 9-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey. Now, they would have a rematch at Stagg Field on the South Side of Chicago.

The Princeton Tigers entered the game 4-0, the Chicago Maroons 3-0. After 3 quarters, thanks to 3 touchdowns by John Thomas, Chicago led 18-7. Then came the kind of collapse people would still be talking about nearly a century later if it had happened on TV and the footage had been preserved. The Maroons fumbled, the Tigers recovered, and took it in for a 40-yard touchdown. Harry Crum scored for Princeton in the closing minutes, and, since Princeton made their PATs, and Chicago didn't make theirs, the Tigers emerged victorious, 21-18.

On the basis of the win over Chicago, Eastern and Midwestern sportswriters proclaimed Princeton to be the National Champions after the season. Western writers gave the title to Cal. No playoff in those days. Bowl games? Cal had won the Rose Bowl in 1920 and tied it in 1921, but in 1922 and 1923, they didn't go. From September 25, 1920 to October 3, 1925, under coach Andy Smith, the Golden Bears had a 50-game unbeaten streak, still the longest in college football history: Played 50, won 46, tied 4, lost exactly none.

Coaching took a severe toll on Smith, who went just 6-3 with Cal in 1925. On a visit to Philadelphia, where he had coached the University of Pennsylvania from 1909 to 1912, he was hospitalized with pneumonia, and died on January 8, 1926, only 49 years old. His career coaching record was 116-32-13, including 74-16-7 at Cal.

This was also the day that Benito Mussolini's Fascists marched on Rome. I have a separate entry for that event. And on the opposite end of the political spectrum, if not quite on the opposite end of the Eurasian continent, the Communists finally completed their conquest of Russia, as the Red Army conquered the Siberian port city of Vladivostok. The Reds would be in power in Russia for the next 69 years, the Fascists in Italy for 21 years.

Also on this day, basketball coach Butch van Breda Kolff and French soccer star Ernest Vaast were born.

The Major League Baseball season had ended earlier in the month, with the New York Giants winning the World Series over the New York Yankees. There was, as yet, no major professional basketball league. The National Hockey League's new season was still a few weeks away. The nascent National Football League did play games that weekend, but all the next day, Sunday.

But, being a Saturday, there were college football games. In addition to Cal vs. USC and Princeton vs. Chicago, including the following:

In New York City, New York University played Rhode Island State at Ohio Field in The Bronx, and won 23-7. Fordham University played Westminster College of Pennsylvania at Fordham Field, also in The Bronx, and won 12-0. Columbia University wasn't so lucky: They played Williams College of Massachusetts, at South Field, just south of their famed Low Library in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, and lost 13-10.

And, aside from Princeton the main team in New Jersey, Rutgers University went to Morgantown and lost to West Virginia University 28-0.

Also, in English soccer, Arsenal lost to Newcastle United, 2-1 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.